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# 7 Counting

Another type of Greek word that occurs frequently in English are numbers. You may recognise them from English words like ‘pentagon’ (‘five corners’), ‘heptathlon’ (‘seven contests’) or ‘octopus’ (‘eight feet’).

Read through the numbers from 1 to 10. Some numbers, like the definite article, have more than one form.

- Some Greek numbers:
- one      εἷς, μία, ἕν
- two      δύο
- three     τρεῖς, τρία
- four     τέσσαρες, τέσσερα
- five     πέντε
- six      ἕξ
- seven     ἑπτά
- eight     ὀκτώ
- nine      ἐννέα
- ten      δέκα
- one hundred   ἑκατόν
- one thousand  χίλιοι
- ten thousand   μυρίοι

In English, words related to ‘one’ are usually derived from μόνος (‘only’) and πρῶτος (‘first’) rather than from εἷς. For example:

- monarchy – rule by a single individual
- monogamy – marriage to one person
- proton – literally, ‘first thing’; a primary substance
- prototype – a first sketch or model

## Activity 10 Test your learning – numbers

Allow about 10 minutes

#### Part 1

Use the list of numbers to answer the following questions:

In the early Christian church, how many patriarchs ruled the pentarchy?

4
5
6

How many kingdoms formed the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy?

7
8
9

How many sides are there in a tessera (a piece of glass or stone used in a mosaic)?

3
4
5

How many fluorine atoms are there in hexafluoride?

3
6
9

How many sides does an enneahedron have?

6
8
9

#### Part 2

If καί means ‘and’, what are the following numbers?

πεντεκαίδεκα

13
15
17

ὁκτωκαίδεκα

17
18
19

ἑπτακαίδεκα

14
17
18

#### Part 3

Some final number-based questions:

What is triskaidekaphobia?

From which Greek number does the English word ‘myriad’ (‘innumerable’) derive?

Using the English word ‘hemisphere’, can you work out what ἥμισυς means? (σφαῖρα is a ‘ball’ or ‘globe’)

### Answer

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13.

Myriad derives from μυρίοι, meaning 10,000 or, simply, ‘countless’.

ἥμισυς means half (a Greek hero or demi-god is a ἡμίθεος).

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OpenLearn - Getting started on ancient Greek
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